Reclamation Leases Water to Meet Middle Rio Grande Water Management Obligations

Originally published in Journal of Water, Fall 2018

Due to ongoing severe drought conditions, the Bureau of Reclamation (“Reclamation”) has leased water supplies to maintain flows in the Middle Rio Grande for the endangered silvery minnow. Under Colorado River Compact and the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact and consistent with a December 2016 Biological Opinion, Reclamation is required to make benefic…